Maxwell A. Arnold's Blog

iPhone 3G - full review coming soon - but a bit of a post-release rant...

2008-07-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the big day happened. July 11th. The release of THE 3G iPhone. Big whoop? Not really, if you ask me.

Between the original, and the new one, there's not much of a difference, and the carriers (in the US AND Canada) have locked Wi-Fi, apparently, so that we have to use their data package. Not a problem in the US, as it's unlimited there (coast to coast), but we have a limit of 6GB of data here, but what about roaming? When I go to the US with my iPhone, I can use WiFi. But if I'm roaming using data (especially on overpriced Canadian roaming) I'll have a very high phone bill at the end of the month. Am I ever glad I have an old iPhone!

Ultimately, this whole thing is just an excuse for 2 demographic factors. The first thing is to have a release to make the old iPhone obsolte, and get the millions of people who have iPhones to buy new ones, so that way they're no longer the loser with the old iPhone. What I want to know is, where will all those old iPhones go? I see liquidation on the horizon... eBay may get some substantial revenue for people putting their old iPhones up there.

The second thing is that, although the first iPhone was very popular in Canada, many (if not, more people than those who actually got the imported iPhones) people were afraid of dealing with grey market phones. They felt that it was "illegal" or Apple would sue them or something, or something would just go wrong - especially since there's no warranty. Not everybody is comfortable with the secondary market - which is a problem for electronics dealers like myself, and kept almost a year-long hiatus of no iPhones in Canada, with those users not succumbing to the temptation of getting one, even though people around them used them without problems. Such a release would not only get people to spend money on the iPhone's hardware, but sign on to new, very expensive service contracts - they're not thinking about it, because they just want the iPhone. Sure, they'll have to work a little harder, or make a few sacrafices, such as no food for a week. But now they're the cool kids on the block with their iPhone (of course, until the new one comes out, and our economy goes through an even more painful, if not, financially crippling process), putting more money in the pockets of Apple and Rogers. Will I ever be glad when the AWS auction is over and Globalive provides a little competition for the Canadian market.

If you ask me, the only real improvement that took place, was the 2.0 firmware. There were very minor differences physically, including a headphone port flush to the rest of the body, so you can use your own earbuds, GPS that doesn't project aural directions (I mean, seriously. We had manually proceeding, step by step instructions in 1.1.4 firmware! The only difference is the global positioning, and the equivalent would have been saving the trip when you're on the internet... won't go into detail, but it's not much of an improvement), a plastic backing, a choice of colors, and of course 3G (depleting your already miniscule battery life. We're going to need some pocket-sized electrical generators to go through a whole day with these things). The 2.0 firmware is faster, and more stable, and has software to support some of the new hardware features, but the biggest breakthrough is the application store. Those who used the original iPhones and had them jailbroken are likely familiar with the installer application - where there is a wide array of applications, from texas hold 'em, to labirynth, to matrix themes, to iSplit, the bill splitting tool for when you go out for a meal with friends. I went a little crazy downloading, and ended up getting a virus. Jailbreaking was a non-Apple certified process, and therefore voided the warranty. The application store is somewhat the official Apple equivalent, with legitimate applications, that are virus-free (which I REALLY love, on account of my second iPhone getting a really bad virus), and may cost money, but there are free applications too (and some more useful ones than installer provided. Hello, built-in Twitter, and Super Monkey Ball!)

But does this mean that the next generation of an iPhone will be even cheaper? Look at the $500 original iPods. People bought them readily, so that they would have a substantial amount of storage to store their music collection on. Then they got cheaper. And cheaper. And even cheaper - so much to the point that we have iPods the surface area equivalent to a quarter - hold 250 songs, and is only $55. Is there going to be an iPhone Nano? Or an iPhone Shuffle? Smaller, lower-caliber iPhones that are more affordable? Only time will tell.

Anyway - will be writing my review on it once the commotion dies down at the local Rogers store, and I get a chance to try out the demo model. Yes, there's only one demo model - downright petty compared to the "Mothership" that had 4 iPhones ready to go.

Also, thought I'd share this video... gives a new meaning to the word "iPhone" - and takes the word "Bluetooth" pretty literally.

Samsung Blackjack 2 Review

2008-06-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

I never owned a Windows Mobile phone before. I got this phone for several reasons…

- It had a qwerty keyboard

- It had good battery life

- It had double the RAM of the i607 Blackjack

- It did MP3s

- Had a 2 megapixel camera

- The jog wheel looked interesting to use

- I wanted to try Windows Mobile on a day-to-day basis

- Being a Rogers branded phone, I figured it would work with the WAP, and all other carrier-premium features that I sacrificed by having an aftermarket phone

They sold it at Rogers without a contract for over $500.00 without taxes – so I bought it for $300 off a Petro Canada executive who went Blackberry (just as I went non-Blackberry – ironically the transition in my case happened same-day).

I liked it right away. It took the 2GB microSD card from my 8320, so my music showed up right away, in an interface that I was familiar with (my documents, etc.) in the Windows Mobile. I found the jogwheel to be a pain to use right away, so I used it as a d-pad only (the dual functionality I really liked. If only the Curve had that!)
Something that turned me off instantly was the fact that I couldn’t use my own earbuds. Samsung has its own proprietary jack, which could be used for power, data, or audio. The quality on them was awful, and they were terribly designed. One ear plug was shorter than the other to bring the microphone closer to my face – but the cord kept bunching up. I instantly decided “forget the music – this thing will stick you out until the new iPhone comes out”. This was before I found out about the fact that the iPhone requires a new contract agreement. More on that in a moment.

So no music. This blows. It was a principal reason for me to get this phone over the curve. And the Curve had wifi! This is another feature this was missing. I thought to myself that I wouldn’t really need it. Boy, was I wrong. I now have to use my computer for all emails, youtube, facebook, eBay, and what not. This caused me to really loathe using it.

Then, I decided to try playing with the camera a little more. You know how on some cameras and cell phones (ahem… n80 with STRONG emphasis), after you press the button, it takes a second or two to actually capture the image? That’s exactly what this thing does! We were at Montana’s one night, and something we drew on the table (yes… we’re low class and impatient like that. Lol.) I decided to take a picture of. I turned on the camera, and took a shot of it, and then moved it away less than a second after clicking the button. On a decent phone, or camera, it would have stayed as I had seen it, unless it was a moving object. Apparently, this phone suffers from lens retardation, and made a stationary table a moving object. Everybody asking how it came out, they see a blur of kraft paper and crayons, with what appeared to be a salad bowl at the end of it.

We all were puzzled. What was this? Where on earth did it come from? Analyzing what made up the smear that appeared on my screen, I quickly realized it was the drawing. It wasn’t an experience I was unfamiliar with, so I just held it in place the next time. It may seem miniscule, but in the long term, will make a big difference.

On the bright side of the camera, though, check out me with the giant Blackberry in Eglinton subway station. RIM’s crass form of promotion. I think they’re shaking in their shoes from Apple’s announcement of the Microsoft Exchange in email. They’re truly competing, and the word about RIM needs to get out there to save their hides. Anyway; won’t go into detail on that. But here’s the shot:

(Yes, that's the Blackjack 2 in my left hand) Why they didn’t use the Bold, I’ll NEVER know. As you can see in the picture, they have SURETYPE boards, and not qwerty boards, yet the form factor still proportionately resembles the curve. Coincidence? Bad/rushed modeling in haste of getting the word out there? I’ll go with the latter.

Another feature I liked about it was how at the bottom, there is an array of buttons for common tasks. They were browser, media, silent, camera, and messages. Very similar to the e61i’s panel of buttons, and was a feature I really liked, so that you didn’t have to go into the menu to access any functions, and they were all available at the touch of a hard key. What this did lack in comparison to the e61i, however, was a customizable key for your own application. Keep in mind, there are 5 one touch keys here as opposed to the e61i’s four, but I’d still like to have one of them to be custom.

The most useful one of them all, I found to be the silent/normal profile toggle. Phones such as the n91, the Treo 680, and the iPhone (just to name a few) had hard profile switch buttons, which I found to be very useful, as I have a tendency to leave my cell phone profile on very, very loud, and is often left there at the right times, usually because of laziness to change the profile. Then I assume nobody will call during that time. Boom. Everybody jumps when it rings because it’s so loud, and I have the embarrassment of having to pick up the phone at an unacceptable time.

On hand camera and messages were handy as well. One thing interesting that I noticed about the camera button was that if you held it down for a few seconds, it would zoom in on the screen you’re at so you can have a closer look. Talk about full-fledged Windows. This is the closest to a computer-like OS I’ve seen on a phone yet, with respect to its depth in features.

At the home screen, there is a dock on the bottom, which is similar to the active standby on the Nokia phones. It is a wide bar that shows only one option at a time, and you can scroll through with either the jog wheel or the up and down keys. It provides me with the following, in top to bottom order of appearance:

- Media (which allows me to pause my song by pressing the select button, or change the song by going left and right. If there is no song active, it will take you to your library)

- Messages/Email (toggle by hitting the left or right keys. Tells you how many new messages you have in each respective inbox, and selecting the inbox allows you to view its content, including the new messages)

- Missed calls

- Appointments

- My Documents/Storage card

- Last two most recent applications used (so if I was to open up calculator, then play a game of bubble breaker, and then exit, and realize I need to use the calculator again, I can just go to this option, and see that the calculator is 2nd on that list)

Another drawback was how hard it was to type with the keyboard. It’s somewhat split down the middle, making the keys T, Y, G, H, V and B rather difficult to hit, as they are the keys right at the split in the keyboard. I also found the keys to be smaller than your average keyboard (blame it on the small form factor), are harder to hit, and are also much less responsive, in the sense that if I start typing quickly, words will start to appear somewhat jumbled, as one of the keystrokes got “lost” in the process of typing.

Other positive features include an easy keypad lock mode, a “home” key that allows you to go to the home screen, and hit the “back” key to go right back to what you were doing, very loud volume, and the phone has an offline mode so you don’t have to fully turn it off at night!

Overall, I’d give this phone a 4/5. I think that may be a little generous, but there is very little wrong with the phone, and a whole lot is right. What was there and what wasn’t there, there was an improper balance of, hence the fact that it’s 20% off of perfect.

Wired: Windows mobile is easy to use. Dock on the main screen allows you to navigate applications with ease. So does the array of buttons at the bottom, covering browser, media, silent/normal profile toggle, camera, and messages/email functions. Sleek, sexy, lightweight design. Good, long lasting battery on it. Camera had Photo Booth-like functions, such as multi-photo shoot, and image filters such as negative, sepia, and black and white.

Tired: Not easy to type on, no wifi, no flash for the camera, media is a joke. Camera – I’m not even going to start with its slow capturing lens. Jog wheel is probably the worst medium of navigation next to the pearl on the RIM phones. Can’t use your own earbuds – Samsung proprietary headphones only. And they suck. Also, hefty price tag of CAD $449.99 plus 13% taxes certainly not worth it.

Bottom line: If you really like windows mobile, and have a data plan, and don’t do much multimedia, this is a good, solid blackberry alternative. It’s basically the sexier version of the blackberry curve 8300 (i.e. no wifi, or gps). Like I said about the curve 8320, don’t get it unless you have a data plan. I’m going to say the same about this phone. It does hold one advantage over the curve, though, and that’s 3G.

Next steps: Can’t really say anything. I’d recommend WiFi, no doubt (even GPS?), as well as a 3.5mm port for earbuds. I know I say this about every phone – but it has to be said. The lack of compatibility just kills a phone, as we all have our own earbuds that we’re used to using – and don’t want to switch over to. Sure, I’m using Apple’s iPhone earbuds as opposed to my beloved JVC Gumy’s. But the iPhones earbuds I find to be higher quality, and they have the microphone/play/pause/skip song button built in as well. The final feature I’d recommend is a broader form factor to support a more physically usable keyboard.

iPhone 3G - my take, as well as a few unanswered questions

2008-06-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Much anticipated with intense excitement, it's finally here. In 8gb and 16gb models. With no chrome on the back, a flush headphone port to the rest of the body, and of course 3G and GPS.

Well, let's start out with aesthetics. The iPhone hasn't changed much physically - same size (marginally wider and thicker), same shape, with the chrome around the edge, a home button, and what have you. The main differences are that there is no chrome on the back - the entire rear part is one solid colour, and that they come in different colours. The 8gb only comes in black, and the 16gb comes in either black or white. Somewhat like the 2nd generation ipod nanos, where the lower capacity ones came in only one colour, and they get you to spend more money, should you want a different coloured one.

What I want to know is - who the heck is John Appleseed?

If you ask me, they should have either offered a more exciting colour for the back (product red? I'd buy that), or an array of colours. If anything, the front's colour should correspond with the back's. I think the white edition is a mistake.

In wireless communications; the 3G will make a big difference for web browsers, photo uploaders, VoIP talkers, and the likes. Also, Bluetooth 2.0, fully expandable, so it's not just for headset support (will get a wireless keyboard for mine. I prefer to type on a hard keyboard over a soft one by a mile. Part of the reason I got rid of my original iphone)

Also, battery life is improved by adding 2 hours of talk time, giving us 10 hours (that's my main killer of battery life - another incentive to get it, particularly compared to the 7 hours that the e61i gave me), as well as 300 hours (12.5 days) of standby time. That's 50 hours more than the original iphone. I'm seeing all the original iphone flaws instantly go away!

Still lacks customizable ringtones. But hey, I'm getting an iTunes account, so I can just use one of my purchased songs as a ringtone. So I'm not 100% complaining - but they could still do better (or at least provide a richer list of ringtones. I mean, for crying out loud, Apple, you own the largest music store in the world - provide us with a few freebie ringtones? And not the nondescript "Alert" and "Blues riff" tones?)

Photography - still the same deal at 2 megapixels for the camera. Nothing is mentioned about the video recording, but it still doesn't have flash. Which I think is a big mistake. One would think that the addition of 3G would inspire them to add some 3G features such as video calling? Not to mention that a user-facing camera would bring on the use of photobooth software, which is pretty much the main reason people buy Mac computers! Why not have it on the go? How awesome of a commercial would that be? To take pictures of you and your friends in the pop art/fisheye/light tunnel filters. You could even apply that to the regular camera to take some really cool pictures with. I mean, they're using computer-caliber software - they might as well add some comparable features.

Something else I noticed was included in the package; a SIM ejector tool. "YES!" I said with great vengeance towards my past experiences with the iPhone SIM card. I remember at eComm 2008 in March, when James Body was unlocking my iPhone for me, he had to take out a paperclip from his bag. I mean seriously, Apple could either design it a little better so we don't need a tool to remove the SIM, or provide us with a SIM remover designed to do what several iPhone users struggled to do. Sure, I saw a few of them on eBay, but it should be included nonetheless. I also could have sworn I saw a syringe-style one once, for popping the tray out. What caused Apple to design it that way, I'll NEVER know.

Only thing I think that should have been different about their production, is making different models for consumer diversity (i.e. low budget consumers, high end executives, etc.). If you ask me, it would sell a lot better that way, just like a Macbook vs Macbook pro kind of relationship. The addition of Microsoft Exchange is a meager attempt at executive compatability, and they could have done much, much better with a model designed for email typing.

Also, I just LOVE how Apple tried to beat the installer application by having their own application store. Just comes to show you how much, for better or for worse, hackers have helped our technology world. They should have changed the wording, though, as several applications are free. I don't think I'll be jailbreaking my iPhone, should I be getting one of these, as that's what is currently messing up my brother's iPod Touch, so getting everything directly from Apple (be it a free application, or a $2.99 one) I'll have the peace of mind of legitimacy, and safety, as well as the self-fulfillment of seeing these developers get credit for what they do. Not to mention that every one of these applications will actually work, unlike certain ones I got from installer that would start up and then just shut down.

Woo hoo! Built in Twitter AND eBay!

Best part is, I'll get used to the phone pretty quickly, as I am used to the size of it, using a Samsung Blackjack 2 right now. Better features would include a touchscreen, a camera that doesn't take two seconds (literally) after the button press to capture an image, have wifi, not have the awkwardness of Windows Mobile, and have decent music capabilities (Windows Media Player DISGUSTS me on this thing).

My bottom line is, that the phone's release has several flaws, and the design was not changed enough to justify an entire new production. Add a user-facing camera, with better resolution on the primary one, and even flash, photo booth, a broader array of colours, and ringtones of our own.

My emphasis on complaints lies with the colour arrays. The iPhone only accounted for 5% of Apple's revenue in the 1st quarter; but look at how well iPods sold when colour variations were added in the 3rd and 4th generations of ipods with the Minis. This is a consumer model phone. Like I said before about consumer diversity; the addition of Microsoft Exchange is the only real professional addition.

The majority of iPhone users will still remain everyday consumers, who care a lot about how their phone looks. Going from only one colour, to two colours (shades at that), is a rather limiting transition, and won't exactly go over extremely well with consumers. I mean, look at the first generations of iPods. They were all in one colour. Boring. They were expensive too. Hence, why you didn't see everyday people walking around with them, until they came out with a cheaper, sexier version.

Now, with respect to my unanswered questions, which I would like to hear from some readers about:

- Will these phones be sold unlocked? Or locked to a carrier?
- Will they be able to be purchased without a plan?
- Do you think firmware 2.0 will be more difficult to unlock?
- Any news on video capture abilities?

Would appreciate some comments in response to my questions. Thanks for reading, and would love to hear some responses to the post itself as well.

Blackberry Curve 8320 Review

2008-06-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

I got this phone immediately after getting rid of the e61i (ok, with a transition in-between of the Motorola V551. Shh. My use of consumer model phones is not supposed to be publically known. Lol.) I got rid of the e61i on account of lack of multimedia, and a very limited amount of RAM, not allowing easy multiple application usage.

Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly a wise transition to make. I was used to Fring and Truphone on my e61i. Although the curve has wifi, these applications are not supported – which is a problem. Now the applications that once tied me up, can no longer tie me up. This just scratches the surface of the problems.

Hard navigation wasn’t easy either. The keyboard you had to press down hard on (and the repetitive click-clack from us marathon typers doesn’t help either!), not to mention how much of a PITA the pearl navigation was to use as opposed to a d-pad. Sure, I could turn down the sensitivity, but it was still rather difficult to do without a structured axis in which I could move. I always ended up overrunning an icon, character, or menu option by 2 or 3, because it’s like it’s covered in grease it’s so hard to control!

The UI wasn’t well designed either. The default array of buttons on the homescreen couldn’t be changed – and weren’t exactly the most useful applications (“Do more” – how about something useful such as messenger, or “your application here” for convenience purposes?)

It was also not very user friendly. It was the kind of phone that you need to read the user manual to be able to use. Although that is the sole purpose of a user manual, I haven’t read one in years and don’t intend to start now. If I can’t figure it out – it’s not the phone for me.

I also didn’t like its mp3 functionality. Sure, it had a built in 3.5mm earbud port, but I couldn’t figure out how to channel sound into the earbuds when I had them attached. I tried toggling the loudspeaker with the key on the keyboard, but all it did was put the music into the earpiece. Not to mention that to go from song to song, I had to go into a menu, and find my way down the menu to “next song” or “previous song”. It got very frustrating. This was a major part in the phone’s functionality, as I got it specifically for the fact that it had the 3.5mm port.
Also, its software expandability wasn’t too friendly either. No fring, no truphone, no advanced multimedia players, and I couldn’t figure out how to hook up my IMAP email with gmail to the email client either through wifi (I guess that’s how RIM gets you to spend more money).

The battery life was not to be denied either. Last me the PDA standard of 3-4 days.
No doubt – a good phone – for someone who has a data plan, and wants the bare minimum of everything else, with respect to multimedia. If you ask me, definitely not all it’s cracked up to be.

It’s still a quality, well built, reliable phone. But like the e61i – it’s designed for a niche market – this one being even more specific. If you don’t have an email data plan, don’t even think about getting this device.

Overall rating: 3.75/5

Wired: It’s well built, and quality engineered. Camera lacked video and flash, but still took decent pictures. Battery lasted me 3-4 days – the standard. Nothing special for PDAs, but extraordinary compared to consumer model phones. Wifi was nice too.

Tired: Internet browser not easy to use at all. Multimedia was a total joke. Typing, and the pearl feature didn’t help either. UI wasn’t expandable, nor easy to navigate with, and the lack of IMAP support through WiFi.

Bottom line: You MUST have a data plan with your carrier to use this phone to its full potential, and not listen to music at all. It’s perfect for its right type of users, I just don’t fall into such a category.

Next steps: Well, RIM kept the Pearl in their new Bold, so I guess I’m the one with the problem and not them. Maybe I’m just not made for RIM phones 8000 series and higher (with the exception of the 8700, which uses a thumbwheel like Blackberries are supposed to). Only next steps I’d suggest are better multimedia support. I can’t blame them for the lack of IMAP support via WiFi either, as RIM does service as well as hardware – and with the competitive prices of hardware in today’s market – they do have to make their money somewhere. I just happen to be on a low budget that is unable to support such features.

Nokia e61i review

2008-06-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

I’d say it’s probably just about the best phone I’ve owned. I got it because of its qwerty keyboard and its wireless internet as principal features for purchasing. But battery life, easy to navigate operating system, VoIP, Fring, and email client, were all things that I realized after buying it, and all made this phone excellent. It was the successor of the Apple iPhone in my life.

So, I had just sold my iPhone when I picked this up. It looked exactly as I thought it would – wider design to accommodate the qwerty keyboard, nice, big screen, connected via wifi, and typing was rather easy on it. I paid $300 for it, put my sim card inside, did a test call, and took it home.

I immediately connected it to the wireless internet. Its browsing was very similar to that of the N95’s or the N81’s – standard issue symbian. Can’t say it’s nothing special – but it’s nothing I haven’t experienced yet. What was really beneficial was the large screen, so web pages were much less condensed. However, the directional pad being rather sharp (as in having a narrow edge, vertically higher than the select button), my thumb started to hurt after prolonged web browsing. It made me really miss the iPhone’s web browsing.

It took a 2GB microSD card at the maximum, so I went downtown and got one. Then I realized – I can’t listen to music without earbuds, and mine didn’t work, as there was no 3.5mm audio port. So I had to order an adapter. Great. Three weeks later, it arrives, and I get a very limited audio experience, with slow transition, no equalizer effects, and overall, a very badly laid out multimedia UI.

What really surprised me was the battery life. It lasted me a good 3-4 days on regular usage, with frequent talking. Most phones (including the iPhone) didn’t even get 2 days’ worth of battery life. I had to keep it on (in offline mode) at night, however, because turning it on uses a substantial amount of power.

The 2 megapixel camera was decent. I’ll give you that. Decent. Not excellent like the N95’s 5 megapixel camera, and I believe gave grainier shots than the iPhone’s camera did. Nothing will EVER be worse than the n81’s camera though. End of story. Either way, it didn’t have flash, nor a video calling camera – which surprised me for a new generation Nokia phone, particularly an enterprise one.

I also liked the panel of buttons between the screen and the keyboard. Allowed me to access my contacts, my menu, my messages (leads directly to email) and the “own” key. The “own” key allowed me to select one application to have one-touch access to. I used it back and forth for Fring, and the MP3 player. Similar to the dock at the bottom of the iPhone for one touch access to any four of your favorite applications.
I found the big screen to be beneficial, because I’m the kind of guy who needs to have several applications ready to go at any time, without having to go through the menu. I had seven (that’s right, seven) standby applications as a result of the larger screen. It was really beneficial.

The speaker may have been mono, but it was loud. Loud and clear. Much better than the iPhones’ speakers. I’ve been told the Motorola q9h had the best speakers on the market – but I’m not really one to worry about speakers (although I’d love to try the q9h).

Keyboard was easy to use – very comprehensive. It had somewhat of a “shift” key for the more advanced characters such as ampersands and semicolons. Keys such as the question mark and @ sign were non-shifted, so you could type them in one touch, as if they were an alphabetic character – making typing really easy.
I found Fring to be easy to use – both with respect to typing and navigation. I also found Truphone, which isn’t compatible with many other phones, to be very good for calling, using the symbian UI, as opposed to having to go into an application to make a VOIP call, as you would in Fring. It’s a phone with functions expanded past GSM – which I found extremely unique. It used the phone’s SIP client so that when I dial a number at the home screen, as if I was to use the GSM network, I’m given an option to make an Internet call, as opposed to a GSM call.

Email use – well laid out, and easy to use – but no push email was limiting. I may be using only IMAP, but that’s not the point. It was rather useful, however – and one of my favorite features, accented by the qwerty keyboard to make typing a breeze. I also loved how easy it was to attach files, especially photos. I had to send a picture to somebody of something, but didn’t have the picture taken yet – so instead of taking the picture with my phone, hooking it up to my computer, saving it to my desktop, and attaching it to an email, I could just take the picture with my phone, and attach it immediately to an email.

There was also a vast array of applications available (most of them cost, though). The one that stood out the most for me, though, was being able to run Youtube natively. Yes, that’s right, just like the iPhone, instead of opening up the browser and going to the Youtube website, there’s a dedicated application for it. You could even upload video directly from your phone. That’s one thing the iPhone can’t do, as a result of its lack of video capture.

My reason for getting rid of it was because of the UI in the music. I don’t like to have to carry around a separate music device, so I prefer to have it in my phone, which was what I loved about the iPhone. It took a few seconds to switch from one song to another, and it was really awkward to go through menus of songs. Not half as good looking as the iPhone’s music UI with cover flow and what have you. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed, and I stand without it now.

What also annoyed me about it was the limited amount of RAM. You know what it was? All of 64 megabytes. WTF? That’s double what a PSP has – and with the use of the symbian OS, then email here, instant messaging there, and music elsewhere, you’re going to have a very, very laggy phone. It didn’t take long for me to get ticked off by this, severely.

My overall rating: 4.5/5.

Wired: Qwerty keyboard easy to use. Applications easy to get to on panel of one touch buttons, and seven active standby applications. Wifi allows you to browse the web, and use VoIP and instant messaging. Excellent speaker. Outstanding battery life.
Tired: Very limited multimedia capabilities. Grainy camera with no flash. Limited amount of RAM limits your application usage. I wish it wouldn’t take so much battery to power up the phone, so I could turn the thing off at night.

Next steps: I feel that stereo speakers and a 3.5mm earbud jack will be a major breakthrough in multimedia capabilities. They should include earbuds that have a built in microphone and next song/pause button built into it like the iPhone did. Flash may help – but will make the phone moderately thicker. I wouldn’t call it a priority. Add more RAM – I mean seriously, this is an enterprise phone. Shouldn’t you be able to multitask? An office suite would be nice (next step for Nokia software developers to create one for all Nokia phones?), and I may be complaining about the battery life – but just to take it out of offline mode when you wake up in the morning – if that’s the price of excellence – I’m not complaining.

Bottom line: If you’re an emailer and/or texter, and a Wifi user, this phone is for you. This phone is directed at a Niche market and will only work for the right people. I wasn’t one of those people, having multimedia needs, but hey, we’re all different.

As a Thinkpad owner... I never would have guessed!

2008-06-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

I saw it as a somewhat logical feature to have in a laptop. But it's not even visible! I'll keep you in suspense no longer. Just yesterday, i discovered the thinklight.

It's a feature that (as far as I know) is exclusive to IBM laptops, in the A, R, T, X, Z and i serieses of Thinkpads. With a simple press of the function key and page up key, a small LED light in the upper middle part of the laptop's frame lights up, like so:

Yes, I'll avoid the corny comment of "how illuminating"

I discovered this by accident when I was leaning back in my chair (it's very hot here, and I was leaning back to turn on my fan), and I stayed comfortable in the reclined position. As a result, I couldn't see the screen very well, so I tried lighting up the display a little more, so I could compute in comfort.

As a somewhat veteran Thinkpad user, I've got the basic function key features down pat, such as brightness up and down, hibernate, shut down, and standby. I can do some of them without even looking, which is what I was attempting to do with the screen brightness. Instead of hitting the "home" key, which would have brought up the brightness, I hit the "page up" key. I was surprised to see, not the backlight getting stronger, but an LED shining above my screen.

I instantly sat upright in inquiry. "Where did that come from?" I thought to myself. It seemed rather obvious that the backlight not getting brighter, and something unexpected had befallen, that I had hit a key I wasn't expecting to hit. The wrong key in LCD brightness, but the right key in discovery.

I toggled the switch and played with it a little bit. I couldn't toggle its strength, but it was a very cool, and provisionally entertaining realization.

I am yet to try it in the dark for its real use, but am sure it will come in handy someday!

Just thought I'd share that with the world.

Best and Worst tech innovations/products of my lifetime

2008-04-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Having used many technologies and devices throughout my lifetime, I figured I’d write out my list of greatest, and worst, tech innovations and products I've lived to experience. Comments, as always, are welcome. I’m aware that my negative opinions, particularly on Mac software and AMD processors are rather controversial. Controversy and arguments are welcome, but please don’t overdo it.

I can’t say there’s a specific genre here. It’s all over the map, but it’s all tech.

So here it is – do enjoy!

Greatest:

Mini USB – Has created universal compatibility among hundreds of devices among digital cameras, PSPs, blackberries, cell phones, MP3 players, external storage drives, photo printers, and the likes.

Suretype – THE best keyboard format in existence. Combines the ease of predicted typing with the freedom of a qwerty keyboard. Exclusive to the Blackberry Pearl and 7105t’s, but I think should be incorporated in more products. Including possibly laptops, seeing how a keyboard is the only thing stopping a small, pocket sized computer from existing. Would be rather interesting. I’d buy it.)

Windows 2000 – Most robust operating system, covering most functions that XP covers, but is far less resource consuming, less graphics intensive, and most things XP compatible, are also windows 2000 compatible. I honestly prefer it over XP.

DVD+-RW – 4.7 GB of storage, with no USB sticking out, read, write, whenever you see fit. Substantially cheaper than a USB drive.

Blu Ray – 25GB per side. I think that’s pretty self explanatory.

Blackberry – A dedicated network for email, and having email automatically sent to your device, all within a phone, is probably one of the biggest corporate breakthroughs since WordPerfect.

Wireless internet – Wireless laptops (with batteries in them) are nothing new. However, using no wires, and being able to use the internet, on laptops, desktops, and now cell phones, was a change for all computer users, both personal and business.

Bluetooth – data transfer and audio, wirelessly, in a high frequency part of the spectrum. Enough said.

Bose Headphones – Have you tried these things? Words aren’t enough to describe them.

JVC Marshmallows – The first true in-ear earbuds. Pinching the earbuds to go into your ear tunnel limits the distance between your eardrum and your music, and every millimeter counts there. A whole new feeling, accompanied by a gold plug to deliver exquisite sound. Strongly recommended for those who really want to feel their music, and not just hear it.

Norton Antivirus – Used by corporations. Used by consumers. Keeps most of us safe, for whatever is out of range of windows defender. Gets better and better every year.

Webcam – The telephone has kept us together over a long distance since 1876. Instant messaging since the mid 1960s. This has covered all the bases of hearing, and transmitting information between parties. It’s one thing to hear them – but another to see them. They have provided us with social connection, corporate communication for meetings, and surveillance of locations by digitally recording the video.

SATA – Far faster than IDE. Enough said.

USB stick – The floppy disk substitute of transferring files from one computer to another. Has benefited teachers, students, employees, and all computer users alike.

MP3 – the most versatile format for clear music, not taking up too much space

Google – The internet’s most reliable search engine, expanding to email, video, translation, cellular communications, and many more applications. What would us geeks, along with any computer user for that matter, do without it?

Hotmail – The first free email provider – and still the best.

Facebook – Connecting old friends and family members, allows you to stalk that hot co-worker, play a game or two, share links and content with your friends, and stay connected.

MSN messenger – The established medium of communication. Enough said. Embedded deep into our society, both technologically initiated and uninitiated.

VOIP – using the internet to make cheap phone calls ruins expensive landline companies, but keeps more money in our pockets, and allows for us to communicate with distant colleagues, consistently and cheaply.

Water Cooling – The “pro” version of cooling. Covers all areas of a case, ensuring it never to overheat.

IBM ThinkPad – The true “pro” PC laptop. Matte Screen, hard hinges, easy to use keyboard, excellent battery life, uses only professional software, is designed to be used on the go. Quiet, well cooled case allows for convenient travel.

Macbook Pro – Best hardware – worst software. Is the sexiest laptop on the market by far. Sure, it’s a heat-prone laptop and costs a whole lot, but Core 2 Duo, SATA hard drive, at least 2gb of RAM, a slot loading DVD burner drive, 15 inch screen, isight, amazing battery life, not to mention a sick graphics card, all add up to the best looking and operating laptop available to consumers. I’d take it if it had Windows 2000 on it, as I mentioned before. For now I shall stick with my ThinkPad.

Mac Pro – Dual CPU slot made it the first widely available computer to incorporate the quad, and octa-core computers. Sexy, quiet, cool case makes it an asset to a desk, rather than an embarrassment.

Intel Core 2 Duo – The consumer level multi-core processor. A breakthrough out of the single core Celerons and Pentium 4’s.

Intel Core 2 Extreme – the 4^th core empowers the user to use as many applications as they see fit. The true power user’s processor.

Ebay – Lets us buy stuff cheaply, and get cash for things we never would have believed to be worth anything.

Craigslist – Has the same function as eBay, just locally. Also has forums for people to discuss things in. If you ask me, is more useful than eBay.

Adobe Photoshop – Has a negative impact on those who are embarrassed by modified photographs, but hey, has produced ads, business cards, banners, and the likes, beautifully and efficiently. The $900 price tag is a turn-off for many budget-minded consumers, but is a necessity for artists, and developers alike.

RJ-45 – May not be wireless, but first provided broadband internet, and was a major change in communications.

Laser printer – A true improvement over inkjet printers, creating sharper, faster printouts (kind of like a dialup to broadband transition)

Hard drive camcorders – No tapes – no DVDs – no hassle. Easy to upload back onto a computer (and much faster too)

SMS – For the times you need less than 160 characters worth of explanation, can’t talk out loud, or don’t want to waste a cell phone minute – this was a total genius idea in 2G communications.

Video Calling – Like the webcam – visually connects parties – but on the go.

Wireless mouse/controller – Freedom from cords, makes you worry less about running out of cord, or getting it caught on something, and more about focusing on your current task.

Youtube – an online video community has entertained watchers, and made stars out of directors, and advertisers got excellent exposure.

Firefox – the “better” version of internet explorer.

Ctrl + T (browser tabbing) – having multiple internet pages in one window was a total breakthrough in internet browsing.

Xbox 360 – hard drive, networking, user interface, wireless controllers, Xbox live, game selection – best console out there, by far.

Xbox live – the first structured online console gaming community – playing together, from anywhere in the world makes a whole new gaming experience.

Intel Xeon – the best server-oriented processor. Enough said.

Palm pilot – an on-the-go desktop-like interface was revolutionary in mobile technology

Product red – not only a cool marketing strategy to help against AIDS, but makes your cell phone or iPod look a whole lot cooler too.

PVRs – TIVOs, and Apple TV, take away the tapes, and allow for easier saving and viewing of recorded programs.

PSP – UMD disks, web browsing, online play, videos, pictures, MP3s, movies on UMDs, infrastructural play, and 2 control axes, reverse compatibility with PS2 – it’s just beautiful.

Universal remote – “I lost the remote” was never a problem as a result of it

Flat Panel displays – use less power, are better for your eyes, are lighter weight, make less noise, and take up far less room than a bulky CRT does. Not to mention that a CRT holds 50,000 volts in its tube. You MIGHT not want to touch that.

Dashboard (10.4 tiger and later) – On the go mini-applications. One of the few things I liked about Mac.

Fingerprint Reader – No more passwords/forgetting your password/having people guess your password. Yay!

Twitter – update your status by text, web, Fring, or MSN. Enough said.

Camera phones – Take a picture wherever you want with one, not having to carry around a digital camera. Now that’s innovative.

Worst:

Mini CD/DVD – why pay roughly the same amount for smaller disks, physically, with much less storage capacity? It’s retarded!

Mac OS X – It’s Mac. It’s not compatible, it’s slow, it’s not well laid out, and it’s hard to navigate in.

Limewire – Kills our music industry, gives people viruses, people get sued by the RIAA. Which are all bad things.

Mac Mini – “Oh, please. You have GOT to be kidding me!” – were the very words that came out of my mouth when I first heard about it. The small form factor simply has no point to it at all. Oh, maybe to save packaging, but that’s about it.

Windows Vista – Like I need to explain?

Black Macbook - $200 extra? For 90 GB of hard drive extra, and a black color? That’s RIDICULOUS. Especially when you consider that the 100 GB hard drive upgrade is only $100 more – so $100 for different colored casing? Give me a break!

Nintendo Wii – has the stupidest gaming style EVER. No DVD-ROM, limited internet play, no hard drive, no traditional gaming style controllers (ok, maybe for the Gamecube games…), and a 360, which is much better, doesn’t cost that much more.

Nintendo Gamecube – the small form factor discs, 2 or 3 games that support online play (and its hell to get online play!), no hard drive, no reverse compatibility, no higher definition gaming, and a very weirdly designed controller.

Macbook Air – no optical drive? $1799 + tax minimum? I do believe I’ve said enough.

Microsoft Surface -$5,000? At best? Sure, it’s cool – but what use has it got?

Blackberry Pearl – consumer model phone, on professional blackberry architecture. Somewhat of an oxymoron. Get a curve.

AMD processors – Not even going to start.

Nintendo DS – Double screen is very confusing to use. Limited game selection, no mp3, no movies, no internet browsing. Get a PSP.

Wireless keyboard – Much more expensive than wired, and for what? Mismatched brands of keyboards and mice may be subject to interference of one another. Not like you have to move a keyboard around or anything so it doesn’t get tangled.

Third generation iPod nano – hardest to work with, stupidest looking design I’ve EVER seen.

iPod shuffle – the booby prize of all iPods. Pathetic.

Farewell to the iPhone - Hello to the e61i!

2008-04-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is a closing review to the iphone, and an opening review to the e61i. Let's start out with the closing of the iphone.

I couldn't believe that I was even thinking about getting rid of the iphone. My baby, for the past month, has served me with music, internet, youtube, texting, twitter, games, and phone calls, in a way no other phone, or pocket sized device for that matter, has ever come close to doing. I saw, through regular usage, that there are several major drawbacks:

- Mediocre battery life; It's pathetic! I get 2 days out of it tops!
- Touch screen - Can be a pain, it smudges, not to mention the fact that if you're wearing gloves outdoors, or shaving, brushing your teeth, eating chicken wings (or anything else that may leave your hands messy) there is one of two problems. Either an obstruction that prevents the heat from your finger to touch the screen, should a call come in, or a glob of something on the screen (sauce, shaving cream, toothpaste, etc.) just to be smeared by your face touching the phone to talk. The touchscreen simply gets old and impractical.
- No push email - not exactly a necessity for me, but I will be getting it around July, and the iphone certainly can't support that on a BlackBerry network.
- No instant messaging
- No video or zoom on the camera (wtf?)
- IMPOSSIBLE to type on (it may correct you, but that's not the point. still a complete pain to do - how I wish it had a suretype keyboard as the Blackberry Pearl and 7105t had)
- No Bluetooth (it's at fault of the unlock - but again, not the point); just HOW am I supposed to transfer my files, now? Huh?
- Didn't let me use my own ringtones (the stupid included nondescript ones were not only annoying - but got more annoying after hearing them over 100 times!)
- No photo editing - You're telling me I can't even rotate my photos, so I don't have to keep rotating my phone while I'm scanning through photos? What the heck is this?

I know I sound like I just came off of a bitter divorce - but the lack of several features, and some being there, limiting my use, just made me decide that I needed a better phone. So, I went and sold it for $480 to someone who obviously would make better use out of it than I would, and made a deal for a Nokia e61i.

I like this thing much more than I do the iPhone. Let's take a look at the lacking features to see where the e61i takes over:

- Mediocre battery life; It's pathetic! I get 2 days out of it tops! Not anymore - 3-4 days, on day and night, probably a week, turning it off at night.
- Touch screen - Can be a pain, it smudges, not to mention the fact that if you're wearing gloves outdoors, or shaving, brushing your teeth, eating chicken wings (or anything else that may leave your hands messy) there is one of two problems. Either an obstruction that prevents the heat from your finger to touch the screen, should a call come in, or a glob of something on the screen (sauce, shaving cream, toothpaste, etc.) just to be smeared by your face touching the phone to talk. The touchscreen simply gets old and impractical. A hard interface makes things a lot easier to work with, which I saw from call 1.
- No push email - not exactly a necessity for me, but I will be getting it around July, and the iphone certainly can't support that on a BlackBerry network. Has BlackBerry network access, not to mention push email on the exchange server.
- No instant messaging - I installed Fring, I've already got Skype and MSN (Not to mention Twitter) going all at the same time. Enough said.
- No video or zoom on the camera (wtf?) Has both. Beat that, Apple.
- IMPOSSIBLE to type on (it may correct you, but that's not the point. still a complete pain to do - how I wish it had a suretype keyboard as the Blackberry Pearl and 7105t had) Ok, no suretype, but everything being "there" and in front of you, no switching menus for punctuation and numbers, and using those a lot, I found this convenient (plus, no shifting necessary for question marks. Go Nokia!)
- No Bluetooth (it's at fault of the unlock - but again, not the point); just HOW am I supposed to transfer my files, now? Huh? How am I supposed to transfer my files? By using an e61i, that's how.
- Didn't let me use my own ringtones (the stupid included nondescript ones were not only annoying - but got more annoying after hearing them over 100 times!) Select from Nokia's rich list of GOOD ringtones, or add your own from any MP3, AAC, or even MP4 file.
- No photo editing - You're telling me I can't even rotate my photos, so I don't have to keep rotating my phone while I'm scanning through photos? What the heck is this? A lot of bull if you ask me. Rotate, rename, even print, are all options within Symbian - and are all things the iPhone can't do.

The only thing I can think of that the e61i lacks in comparison to the iPhone is multimedia. The e61i has Realplayer to handle videos and music, but I find the interface to deal with music to be slightly difficult, not to mention the fact that there is no built-in 3.5mm jack. Sure, they had it on the iPhone, but the port was receded, so you could only use Apple's earbuds with a slender plug cover. I just ordered an adapter from Hong Kong a few minutes ago, so I can use my own earbuds (which I don't have yet - I'm going to order some good JVC ones - sound is an investment). Once I toss a 2gb Kingston Micro SD card in there, I will have this thing turned into an enterprise/multimedia phone in no time!

So far, what I like about the e61i, is specifically to do with its communications features. Most elite phones are criticized for not being enough of a phone, and focusing too much on features such as camera and mp3. However, through aftermarket programs, I have expanded this phone past its GSM functions, to MSN and Skype with Fring, as well as international calling at essentially under 10 cents a minute. Also within wifi, I hooked up my Hotmail inbox to it. I'm going to be getting my own domain, so that I can send and receive email through POP3 or IMAP.

Well, I'm liking this so far. But hey, I liked the Powerbook and the iPhone too, and ended up hastily selling them afterwards. All I can say is - I hope this one lasts!

eComm 2008/iPhone review

2008-03-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

I went to San Jose on the 11th of March, 2008. I came expecting to do 3 things. Go to eComm 2008 and learn a lot about the VOIP industry, eat at an IHOP, and get an iphone to take back to

Canada

to resell for a $150 or so profit. I am currently writing this on a plane, leaving the San Jose area around noon Pacific Time on the following Saturday. Of my goals, 1.5 of them happened - I learned about the industry (more than I had before - but to get on track, you have to have at least a year of experience in the field to understand companies, their competitors, how they work, etc.), didn't eat at an IHOP (no time - lunch and dinner was planned, and breakfast was spent half awake as a result of the jet lag, and it was once 7-11 and twice Dennys), and I got my iphone - but as of this writing, I have no intention of selling it.

Tuesday night, we arrived in San Jose, and took a taxi to the hotel. I was ready to meet Tom Howe, who my dad said I would be friends with instantly, and get the iphone off of him. I had my Benjamins in hand, ready to go – anxious to get the phone and make the money (at the time, little did I know it would be my everyday phone). It was a rather unique hotel, with almost everything outdoors (except the rooms), including the pool, the hot tub, the lobby, the hallways – pretty much everything. We unpacked our things, and hailed another cab to Shiva’s Indian restaurant. I was instantly launched into the bloggers’ world. Meeting big timers like Andy Abramson, James Body, and Boaz Zilberman was a real thrill for me – the people whose names I have only seen on my dad’s computer screen from time to time have now been said by mouth with a handshake.

James Body and I had a rather interesting conversation about iphones, and how he had 3 of them with him, carrying around dozens of SIM cards, and belonging to multiple carriers. We also discussed the features of some phones in the Nokia E-series, particularly to do with the battery life. As a technical noob to cell phones, I really learned a thing or two about cell phones – including how WiFi usage only marginally affects battery life (the exact opposite case on computers - allowing me to assume the same thing about cell phones), and unless you set an APN for your wireless carrier, on a WiFi enabled phone, they can’t charge you for internet. This was a weight off my shoulders – I was always putting my N81 into offline mode so it couldn’t access the GSM network when I wanted to go online! There was no way for me to access the internet through my carrier by accident. Am I ever glad I met him!

So, around 1AM local time, me, my dad, and Tom headed off to the hotel (Tom didn’t have the iPhone – nobody had it in stock, and he said not to worry, we’d find an AT&T store to get one from. It wasn’t a big deal that he didn’t have it – and afterwards, I was glad that he didn’t have it, or I would have never been able to visit the “Mothership”. More on that in a moment…). I ended up getting 6 hours of sleep in, and couldn’t wait to get to the conference – anxious to see the presentations these companies had in store for us.

Tom drove us that morning to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View – it sure didn’t look like your everyday museum, that’s for sure. More like an art gallery, if anything. We bypassed the front desk, and went upstairs to the conference receptionists. We got our complimentary eComm 2008 tote bags with some “goodies” inside (including a free 1gb USB key), and our name tags. Found it useful to have one, because when I walked into the room, and my dad and I set up beside James, he looked at my name tag, and asked me “are you related to Jon?” – I thought that sitting with him at the restaurant the prior night would have made that an easy determination of blood relationship – apparently my height and full head of hair shows no kin! Just joking dad… lol.

In the morning, a particular company that stood out was Twitter. I’m aware that people (particularly of my generation) like to brag, or let people know what they’re doing. These are usually eased somehow, awkwardly into IM conversations, or put into a Facebook status bluntly, to tell their circle of friends what they’re doing. Twitter allows you to update as much as you see necessary, via SMS or via web. I see potential mashup opportunity here with a cellular carrier allowing unlimited updates for a certain amount per month (kind of like the plans that allow unlimited access to Facebook, offered by Rogers in Canada, unsure of US availability by carrier, but I’m sure it’s there!). I saw a lot of potential in it, and wanted to talk to Blaine about it, but I couldn’t find him at the conference. I signed up for the service, after the conference, and only find myself to be a minor user, but I can see the preps of the world wanting everybody to know about their latest endeavors – I’m thinking perhaps photo support, such as submitting an image along with your status, through MMS, or just as easily via web, to show the latest jacket you got, how happy you are with your new Kanye West CD, or the good looking girl you just picked up at the local Starbucks. The concept is original, and stood out significantly, as a possible new addition to the information age. “Facebook me”, “MSN me”, or even the old “Email me”, can soon move aside to the new “Twitter me” – they’re going places.

Tom also presented, using a very unique reference, saying that voice is like Paprika – it’s a spice – and it’s a commodity. Quote Jim Courtney, “He took the roundabout way of describing his point.” Shows that you want to be the Grocer, and not the Farmer (if you see the VOIP/Agricultural connection here).

That day at lunch – my dad and I were enjoying the heckuva spread the conference provided, talking with Shai and Jason about VOIP, and current projects my Dad's company has lined up with Shai and Jason's company Fonolo, when we see Tom running into the room, saying that he has a carful of 4 people headed to Cupertino, to the Apple store. With goal 3 in both my Dad's mind and mine (to get an iphone and resell it in Canada for a profit, like I said in the first paragraph), we exchange glances, and grinning, I say to Tom "let's go". Seeing only 5 people fit in a car, it was only me who could go, and my dad stayed behind. Running to the car, we're Cupertino bound. At 1 Infinite Loop, the Apple Campus, as they call it, we can't find a parking space. Taking a wrong turn, we end up where we were 10 minutes ago. Tom says "I guess that's why they call it 'Infinite loop!'"

We get dropped off, and go inside "The Mothership", with Tim's intention to get a laptop, mine to get an iPhone, and Tom's to get a shirt that says "I visited the mothership" - which I still regret not getting. But $25 for a t-shirt is outrageous. Meh. I'll just screen it on a blank shirt myself at home. Take that, corporate markups!

So, inside, the first thing I see is the "iphone table" with all the demo iphones - some in their docks, some out. I try it out, and realize it's a better device than I thought it to be. I'd tried out ipod touches at home, and the night before, had tried one of James' 3 iphones. It's a beautiful phone, and I realize that, while unlocking it, the temptation will be there to keep it for myself. I go to the cashier asking for an 8gb iphone. Handing her 4 Benjamins and a Ulysses, she hands me a receipt and an Apple store bag, and the change. I take great care of the receipt, because that's what keeps the warranty (which, ironically is voided by my unlocking it... and I can always relock it... shh.. lol.) and that maintains the resale value.

Tim is disgusted - he can't get a laptop here. I found that illogical too - the mothership doesn't sell their own products? I thought that if anything they'd have a mothership exclusive product, such as a black metal Macbook Pro, a product red macbook or imac, or anything like that. But the first step is to actually sell such devices before you can discuss exclusive variations. I tell Tim my negative experiences with Mac software. I couldn't even keep the stupid powerbook for more than 24 hours! The OS was slow, resource consuming, and a square peg in a round hole, in the sense that it wasn't compatible with any software, and little hardware that I tried to use on it. I won’t go on a rant here, but a 2 word summary of Mac OS X: It stinks. Ok, maybe its decent on the iphone, but when you add a mouse, hard keyboard, and an LCD display 12 inches or larger, it sucks as a main computer.

After I got the iphone, we messed around with one of the iMacs, playing with the Twitter software with google maps, which shows where people are located when they put in their status (popular already – and geographical pinpointing of statuses? My opinion – disable this feature – it may be one thing for someone to know what you’re doing, but where you’re doing it is a whole other dimension – a whole other dimension that you may not want some people seeing such as parents and spouses…) and statuses are popping up all over the state, submitted via SMS or web. Tom made us stay for nearly 5 minutes because he was determined to see his "Woman" pop up again. If you saw her profile pic you'd see why. She never came back up, so we all leave the store realizing it's not the end of the world, and I have either a $150 profit, or a kick-ass phone, sitting in my Apple store bag. What I make of it was up to me, and just an exacto knife away from its determination. I was still sitting on the fence about it.

Getting back a good 20 minutes late, my Dad tells me that James' presentation is on 101 things you never thought you could do with a mobile phone, and he could unlock the iphone for me on stage. Apparently, while we were gone, my Dad, and others were saying "I bet he keeps it". After saying I'm still deciding which I'll do, James comes down from his presentation (he couldn't fit the unlocking into the presentation - which I expected to happen, seeing that an unlock takes a few minutes, and he only has 15 of them to make his presentation with). So we sat down, I pull my knife on the box, and open it. It's still brand new. I plugged the iphone into his Macbook pro, every move I made was slow, and full of caution, to see that the phone remains absolutley, 100%, purely, MINT. About 2 minutes into the unlock, I see the infamously scary, sign of a bricked iphone/failed unlock "USB cord directed at the itunes logo" that you see in forums. James tells me it's fine. I see a command prompt, indicating what it's doing. I love how it uses real world language like "This file crapped out on me", "Chilling while I'm waiting for something", "Oops.. I can fix that..." - I wasn't conscious of whether it did that to throw me off or not. It really had me going.

Should it all matter? I see the Apple logo appear, and the iphone turns on, with my sim card in it. It's loaded fully, and we confirm its functionality by my dad doing a test call to my number. Surely enough - it worked. I had mixed thoughts at the time, including "$150 profit! That’s a good 35% margin!" and "Are you crazy? Keep the phone! What's $430 to a big man like you?" – it ain’t much if it gets me a phone like this in return.

So, trying out some of the functions, installing applications, taking pictures, I came closer and closer to succumbing to the temptation and deciding to keep it. It was one peel of the screen protector away from a decision. Realizing that I wanted an ipod touch to begin with, the fact that there's a built-in youtube application, and there's safari on it as well, plus the ipod to it - not to mention the maps application, and 8 gigs of storage, plus the fact that I’d be stuck with my rubbish Blackberry 7105t, and getting an ipod touch would only take up another pocket of space, and why not keep them all in one device and not be embarrassed when I take my phone out - I made the $431.92 decision - "I'll keep it!"

James Body and I, after unlocking my new iphone

Heck, if worse comes to worst, I’ll just sell it used, and turn a few bucks on it anyway. Man, do I love international arbitrage!

I instantly took out my blackberry and cell phone to transfer my calendar, and my contacts to the new iphone. I particularly liked the calendar program's ability to remind you to do something every x amount of time, which is a huge benefit to me, because on my blackberry, I had to recreate my contact lens reminders constantly – so I wouldn't forget when to put new ones in. I liked how when you select an image to put to a contact, you have the option of taking the image on the spot. My dad couldn't believe that I could do that - so I took his picture, and had him call my number - sure enough, the ringtone starts ringing, and the word "Dad" shows up, with the image of him taking up the whole screen. We were both astonished. I'm keeping this for sure.

After the conference was dismissed for the day, and we were having drinks downstairs, as I explored how much easier it was to navigate in safari, as opposed to Symbian's browser on Nokia phones, as well as the Youtube feature - which I found much easier to navigate in as opposed to using any other internet browser - no ads - no nonsense - it just shows the bare bones things you need to see and know to watch a video. In Safari, it was a simple double tap, or sliding finger motion to zoom in and out - took some intense menu navigation to go just one level of zooming in Symbian.

Speaking of Youtube and video, around 5, Luca had a lightning talk. He was saying the night before how he had to put 32 slides into 5 minutes. I thought, “are you insane?” – but believe it or not, he got through it with time to spare, and didn’t get terminated by Lee’s legendary gong sound. What he said was that video has a great impact on our communications world. Companies like Sightspeed specialize in it, most carriers worldwide are offering video calling now, instant messaging services such as Yahoo, AOL, and Windows Live Messenger are offering it, and youtube has millions of users. Video is clearly the next big wave. Whether it’s to prove where you are to your mom on Friday night, or to ask your spouse which brand of Kleenex to get, or just to see someone over a long distance, it’s a breakthrough, because we’ve been using voice since the days of Alexander Graham Bell – so isn’t it about time we made a change?

At the end of the conference, during the drinks downstairs, I got some nice shots of the vintage computing artifacts. Exploring new features of my iphone, such as Youtube and its simplicity – being able to scan through photos with ease, and tracking stocks, I fell deeper and deeper in love with it. Walking to the parking lot with Jim and my dad, I realized I now belonged here in California. Among the highflyers who use iphones - and not Nokias. They're for peasants now. Soon enough to be a highflyer – I’ve got the equipment down pat, now I just need the industry experience. This is where I start it. When we got into the car, I committed myself to ownership by peeling off the protective cover. This was it. I felt like I had just become a whole new person by then.

When we got to the hotel, I was yet to even try the ipod feature - flipping through albums, and touching an album so it turns over and displays the songs was as advertised. I never knew how slow the conversion of MP3s to MPEG4s was. It took me most of the night to get all my music on - but it worked just fine. I went to sleep a highflyer, with the iphone in the dock, ready to whip out of the dock in the morning, no holding the phone firmly, and pulling of cell phone chargers necessary - one nice, clean, smoooooth motion (hear that, Nokia users? Lol. And don’t think I’m shutting up at Motorola, Samsung, and RIM either!)

Going into the conference was pretty much routine at this point – put on your conference badge, walk in the door, nod your head once at the museum receptionist, go upstairs, and walk past the conference receptionists coolly, and chill outside of the conference room until we’re called in by Lee and his cronies. There were 2 sessions in a row that stood out that morning – the first one from Peter Sisson of Toktumi, which allows users to use a soft keypad to dial numbers, and call from a name index (kind of like a cell phone address book on a screen), or use a landline phone, adapted through USB, so you can dial, as well as make and receive calls using the landline phone’s hardware, the computer’s software, and the network’s communications. I felt this idea had substantial potential. When you read about what my lighting talk topic was about on Friday, further down, you’ll see what I mean, as far as what market niche this technology relates to, in terms of being able to use the same phone you use for landline on VOIP.

The second one that stood out was from Dawn Nafus of Intel, where she talked about GPS devices inside cell phones, and how that can be initiated by the user to find directions to a phone number (I had an idea before this for a landline phone to have caller ID where it shows where the call is coming from, and on top of the arrow, or whatever is pointing at the location, shows the caller’s name and number… looks like they’re applying it to cell phones now - but a parallel concept, don't you think? We'd need landline phones or attachments that show locations in colour, and more than 50 pixels per square inch - not the classic 2 line monochrome text-only screen), but this technology can be used against its users, in the sense that people can find out your location by a phone number as well (because every number has a location, and you have to be somewhere, right?). Might be telltale as to where you really are - which can be a good and bad thing. Some things were meant to be kept a secret. The Google maps on the iphone has this feature as well, to pinpoint your exact location at the push of a button. Can be done through wifi, or EDGE. So a dedicated GPS network should be even easier. Somewhat like a feature Disney Mobile had years ago for parents to track where their kids were, and alert them if they went out of a certain zone. Am I glad I grew up in a less tech-savvy world – I’d have had no freedom or privacy had this been in place a few years ago. Who am I kidding? I’ll probably have just as protective a spouse as I did parents, and she’ll have a GPS monitor of where I am on her cell phone, ipod, alarm clock, and big screen TV to make sure I’m not out where I’m not supposed to be...

My dad also did a panel at 2 today, about mobile voice mashups. Got a few good shots in on the Sony DSC of those (the iphone doesn’t have zoom!). He did a great job moderating the panel, and he got some good insights from James, Tom, and Boaz to name a few of the people on the panel.

Dad moderating his panel.

Dad and everybody on his panel - Sorry for cutting you off in the first picture there, Boaz

Today, I used the iphone the full day, and at night, got some ipod usage in. I particularly like how the microphone is right at mouth level, to make handsfree talking extremely easy. The sound quality on the iphone headphones was substantially better than the quality on the older generation ipod headphones. I still prefer my expensive Sony around-ear headphones, but they won't fit in the receded headphone port, designed to fit only Apple ones. I could pay $5 for the adapter that's an extension cord that fits in the port, and makes a new port at casing level, so you can use any headphones. But that's not the point. When I got home, after posting for a solution in forums, I asked around for how to change songs without taking out your iphone (on my downtown Toronto iphone case hunt, I got some very threatening looks as I took the phone out to change the song – the iphone would be a very likely steal here in Canada, so out of pocket use while on the streets should be minimal). I was told that double pinching the microphone (apparently it’s a button too) changes the song, and single pinching toggles play/pause, and if a call comes in, answers the call. And I thought eComm was full of innovators! Apple by far has the very best, and that feature confirmed it. At the end of the conference Thursday, I was told by Lee that he likes the ideas I was discussing with Susan about the impact of senior citizens on the demand of VOIP in the telecom world, and could possibly fit me in for a 2 minute lightning talk the next day. I was pumped.

On Friday, I slept in. Jet lag was killing me as it was, so I scheduled the 10:30AM shuttle coming from the Domain hotel. When I got out, on my way to the Domain, I was living the ballin' lifestyle. Walking down the streets of San Jose, wearing dark shades, iphone in pocket, and Ozzy blasting away on the innovatively designed earbuds (still yet to know the song skip feature). I wasn't even close to done my presentation for that day - but I'd make due during breaks.

Rich Miner and Christopher Allen really stood out today as well. Christopher talked about iphone application development, and Apple’s new SDK, and his community of iphone software developers. These hackers expand the iphone to its full potential, and give it new features - as opposed to the limited stock features that come with it. Rich talked about the Google Android, a competitor of the iphone, with double the processing speed and RAM, and up to 64gb of solid state mass storage. The device itself looks like an e61i, has a colour scheme like the Skypephone, and the operating system, with the dock at the bottom, and information bar at the top, looks just like Mac OS X. I believe this will end up being similar to an Archos/Ipod touch relationship; the Archos is a better device, but the touch is much sexier, and that’s what consumers go for. I think that the Android should be focused towards the corporate and professional world, and not worry about consumers. The consumers are already hooked on the iphone, so no need to try and compete.

Surely enough, my presentation came along beautifully. We were rushed at the afternoon break to get it to the AV people so it could go up properly. Once I got onto the stage, I was so nervous. With wireless presentation remote (very easy to use - too easy to figure out, and very pro to be moving slides along without any obvious movements), wireless microphone in hand (that my voice sounds excellent over - they've really got it going on at the computer history museum if they can afford a sound system like that) I was ready to speak. Within my sight was the huge plasma screen TV at the back of the room that told the speakers how much time they had left. It read 2:00, and counting down to 1:59. This was it. I started by introducing myself, and people seeing the 15 year old on the stage, would think that I would be talking about teenagers' needs in telecom, such as texting, video calling, facebooking, etc. But when they saw the presentation's topic: The impact senior citizens have on the future of telecom, as a result of population explosion, and the retirement of the baby boom generation. The presentation is available for viewing at my Dad's blog here (click on the link within the post - you'll need to have Quicktime).

I have to say - at first, it wasn't taken seriously. When I put up the second slide saying the topic of the presentation, it caused some commotion in the audience, and a significant, sharp "WHAT?!" from somewhere in the left of the audience. I ignored it and continued on the presentation, heartbeat was raging at this point, seeing that there was at least one person in the audience who obviously disapproved, and he could influence others. This was all in a matter of seconds - no need to worry about it - his opinion is one of over 100 - you've really done well if you can get everybody's positive opinion - but if you can get all but one - that's still pretty darn good.

I like to end my presentations like that with a bang. Here's how the final slide read:

Seniors don't want to change their habits

It's a growing market

VOIP needs to be easy to use

For the 89,400,000 people who need it - we need to keep it that way

IT'S OUR JOB AS INNOVATORS TO DO SO

That earned an average applause amount. I received several compliments afterwards - particularly about my bravery to go on stage at a conference like this with no prior experience.

So, an hour later, the conference was over. And for the most part, so was my trip to California. It's by far the best state I've ever visited. End of story.

My dad and I holding up the eComm sign - this one was actually taken with the iphone, as it required no zooming.

And here's my formal review of the iphone:

So far, what I like about the iphone is the simple, touch interface. The slide to unlock, scanning through photos, looking through music, browsing the internet - it's beautiful. Particularly on photos, where to zoom, all you have to do is double tap the screen, and it zooms in, and you're still able to scan through photos while it's zoomed in! The only thing I dislike about the touchscreen is the fact that it's next to impossible to type. One feature I'd like to see is a traditional cell phone alphanumeric keypad, as that is the way in which I, among many cell phone users worldwide are accustomed to use to enter text, where a keyboard is spread across 12 buttons as opposed to 26 and change (one for every letter of the alphabet, plus the shifts, caps locks, spaces, etc.)

The 8gb drive comes in handy for photos and music - but I was disappointed to see that the formatted capacity is really 7.3gb - nearly a 10% loss. Not that I have that much content to put on - but that's not the point. I paid $431.92 US for 8 gigs - I should be able to expect pretty darn close to it.

Unlocking it was a snap. I used ziphone, which in exactly 4 minutes unlocked it to work on any GSM carrier and put on the installer application, so I can download more applications to use on the phone and expand its default functions (feature-wise, the iphone is a pretty boring phone on the stock software). Props to James Body for doing that for me, and showing me how.

Locking it on the other hand (touchscreen lock - not carrier lock. lol) I found to be helpful to prevent any possible pocket operation, and it doesn't involve holding down any keys, flipping a switch, or going into the menu - just hit the power button once, and the screen goes blank, and you're good. To unlock, hit the home button, and slide the bar to unlock it, and boom, you're back in business.

The camera I found to be an excellent lens, but 2 major league problems - no video, and no zoom! WTF?! You can zoom on the actual photos after they're taken (and it’s much clearer than your average photo viewing program's zoom function - but that’s not the point)

Music operation I also found to be very good, and situation-sensitive. For example, if you pull out the earbuds, the music automatically pauses (not like the n81 and n95 where a simple pull of the cord that was slightly too hard would send the music flying out for everybody to hear) not to mention that it goes into different volume modes for whether the headset is plugged in or not. The microphone doubles as a button, as well as a microphone (of course). While music is playing, pinching it once plays/pauses, and pinching it twice forwards the song. When a call comes in, your music will fade, and your ringtone will play. Pinch the button once, and you can talk away (ipod headphones are so pedestrian now that seeing someone talk with them in will make them think you’re crazy)

A disadvantage of the use of Mac software includes not being able to use EDGE with Rogers. It won’t sync up with the Safari software from what the guy told me, but what can I do about it? It’s a grey market product here anyway, so I can’t go protesting it.

I also found some very useful programs on the installer application that comes with a jailbreak – including TTR (Tap tap revolution – somewhat like Guitar Hero for the iphone), billiards, solitaire, and sketches, which is where you can sketch something out with your fingers, whether it be on a blank background, an existing image, or an image that you take within the program. I find that the stock Apple software is rather boring and limited. It’s developers and innovators that make the difference and make it a more exciting device.

The ringtone feature was a little annoying. I have less than 2 dozen ringtones to choose from – and the only way to get a greater selection is to pay for them and download them. So I can’t use any songs I currently have as ringtones (which sucks, because I was really counting on hearing some Ozzy, not the generic, nondescript ringtones Apple gives you). I also like how you can change it from silent to ring with the flick of a switch – no going into menus/series of button presses necessary.

So, the actual phone feature, believe it or not, it takes 2 button presses to get to the stupid dialpad. I like how when you put the phone up to your face, it feels your heat, and turns the screen off, so any constant contact during the call allows no operation to occur by locking the screen, so I can’t hit “Add contact” and then “Dad work” by accident, while on the phone with one of my friends… which would be rather embarrassing - and in some cases of what I'm saying - let's just say... incriminating. I love the caller ID how when someone in your phone book that you have a picture assigned to, shows up as the caller ID. It’s great, for those visual people out there.

The iphone can be described in one word. Awesome. What you see on TV is 100% true, and as advertised. However, they don’t tell you something that’s very important. It gets better. You can’t know an iphone until you’ve tried it, and you really don’t know how useful, versatile, and awesome it is until you’ve owned it.

Wired: Everything. OMG is the 3 word description for this phone. 100% excellence.

Tired: Bluetooth capabilities limited with unlocked software. If you’re listening to music and typing sideways (with the phone on its side), your hands end up covering the speakers, which aren’t that good to begin with. No flash on the camera, no zoom, no video. Controlled ringtone selection. No 3G. Limited storage space compared to this generation’s 160gb ipod classic. Typing just sucks. No ability to rotate photos, or do any other basic editing on the phone.

Next steps: Things will certainly improve and be much easier once Rogers supports it. Better positioned speakers, easier typing (Wouldn’t advise a hard keyboard, though. Takes away from the sexiness of the phone), give a better camera with more features, including a front facing one, for video calling (you’ll need 3g for that first!), and photo booth (major selling point for the Intel generation Macs… having it on the go will make it amazing) But for a front facing camera solution, the little mirror mechanism they had at Macworld to get your image in the range of the camera doesn’t cut it. Add more storage, let us use our own ringtones, and add photo editing (just the basics of rotation, cropping, red eye fix, etc.) Would sell better coming in different colours, especially a product red one. Should also be thinner, just like the ipod touch.

Bottom line: It’s the best phone you’ll ever have. For now. Google Android won’t compete for those non-pros out there, but by “for now”, I mean when apple comes out with an improvement (somewhat like the nano over the mini back in the day, adding colour screen, album artwork, being much thinner, etc.), we’re going to have a very, very nice device on our hands. Either way, I would highly recommend having it.

Rating: On account of many features missing, 4.5/5 (90%)

So, 5932 words, 439 lines, and 26,018 characters without spaces later...

There

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Nokia N81 Review

2008-03-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

I run across the street to the PO box, hoping for more hockey cards in the mail. Indeed, a few arrive, but then I see a packing slip for a parcel. I see “Andy Abramson” on the package and think only one thing – phone. Getting back to school (I’m on lunch at this time), I open the package, and see the nice, shiny packaging of the Nokia N81 8GB. I must admit – I was immediately turned off, when I saw Maroon 5 on the cover. Let’s just say Nokia doesn’t have great taste in music – In my opinion, as a pop group, Maroon 5 couldn’t pop corn. Okay, "Wake Up Call" has a decent chorus (as seen here http://youtube.com/watch?v=mnxmLR5h7yE), and Makes me wonder has an OK tune to it (http://youtube.com/watch?v=dwBk2eIyYE0&feature=related)– but here’s where my “musical ADD” kicks in, and I’m unable to listen to these songs fully. Anyway – I’m getting off topic here.

So, once removing the Maroon 5’d up packaging, I find a phone. An unlocked GSM phone, but a weird thought flashes through my head – “this isn’t a Nokia phone…” I honestly thought it was an LG chocolate at first (http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=2085&idPhone1=1533 they look alike, no?) but quickly realized that the Nokia logo, and a colour scheme beyond black and orangeish/reddish, and the fact that the sealed package said “Nokia” on it all contributed to the same phone I expected at the moment I opened up the package. So, giving the phone a look-over, I see at the top left of the screen “N81 8GB” and I think “Sweet…” because from my experience – internal memory is way easier to deal with, so you not only don’t have to deal with the add-on memory as a separate storage device when connecting it to the computer (in comparison to the internal phone memory – much like on the N95) – and not only that, but it’s cheaper too (an 8gb micro SD card would easily go into 3 digits – whereas the memory is built in here.

The layout of the phone I ultimately found to be good. At the top, there are dedicated game keys, which can be used in games (of course), as well as the gallery when the phone is in sideways view mode, to zoom (which I found to be useful). There is a “hold” switch at the top for keeping the keypad locked to prevent pocket operation (which, if activated while the slider is down, deactivates when the slider goes up – similar to the N95’s design – where software-wise, the slide function was built completely around locking and unlocking). The navigation I found to be well-designed. The directional pad was somewhat difficult to push on because of its narrowness (especially in Canada during the winter, and you have numb hands and you want to navigate. It hurts!). But what made the directional pad unique was the fact that the inner rim was touch sensitive, and could be used to scan its way through photos, music, menu options, etc. Very similar to the iPod’s clickwheel design – which I was not only used to, but found to be very innovative and easy to navigate with. Surrounding the directional pad on the outside are 5 dedicated MP3 buttons – Play/pause, stop, forward, backward, and music menu. They are arranged in such a way that you can operate it handsfree, again, like the iPod’s clickwheel – so you don’t have to go taking it out of your pocket to change the song like other phones like the N95 do (ok, so it has the double slide, but those buttons are hard to push, and you have to slide something out for it). What I really like, is the fact that there’s a dedicated Master Media button, that will direct you to your carousel-like index of media – which, by default is music, but by either left/right buttons, or inner rim scrolling, can switch around to games, camera, contacts, internet, and maps. Finally, the other buttons, I have mixed feelings about. The menu and clear buttons are conveniently placed, but the talk and end buttons could have had better placement. I found when sending a text message, when hitting the clear button to make a correction, on multiple occasions, I found myself hitting the end button by accident, closing the text message, and going to the standby screen. This could be prevented by putting the buttons on different panels of plastic, so that accidentally pressing one button instead of the other becomes physically impossible.

Now, the operating system – regular, standard issue Symbian – with the regular firmware tweaks to adapt to the phone’s hardware. The wi-fi function I found rather useful. The browser I find to be a little hard to work with, in the sense that it’s hard to reach certain functions like refresh without going to the master menu, going forward and backward is confusing at first, and I hate how moving the cursor around is limited to the pre-arranged grid, and hitting more precise buttons requires some intense tweaking and re-positioning. Not cool. I also found that while scrolling through pictures, they come out fuzzy, but then focus in. I found this to be bad too. Some decent games were included on the phone (demos, of course) all with complex functions such as using the extra 2 dedicated gaming keys (which made it a more intense experience – let’s just say I used up the demos pretty fast). But essentially, the operating system is the same as you will find it on any N-series phone.

The speakers delivered loud, clear sound, not tinny at all. However, the camera has awful, grainy pictures that are pathetic for 2 megapixels. The front facing camera is the quality I would expect from an 0.3 megapixel lens – as we’ve experienced on just about every phone, with the exception of the N90 and N91 in the nseries.

Wired: sleek, sexy design has eye appeal – media based design built around speakers, MP3 controls, and clickwheel-style directional pad. Great games, and with the proper advertising campaign built around gaming controls, as well as the actual games, could help the phone sell really well. The 8gb storage was outstanding as well.

Tired: Too easy to push the wrong button, seeing that the menu button and the talk button are on the same physical panel of plastic – same deal with clear and end, which are 2 entirely different functions, and incorrect use can result in disaster. Awful camera. Glossy back prone to fingerprints. Touch-sensitive inner rim of the directional pad is inconsistent, voice dialing could have done a little better speed-wise.

Bottom line: Decent phone. Not amazing, but decent. Great for MP3s and wifi, the phone as a phone isn’t bad either. The games are nice too on it, and the 8gb storage, plus mp3 and game controls make this an elite entertainment phone.

Next steps: Get a 5 megapixel camera like the N95, fix the plastic problem, and perhaps make the OUTER rim touch sensitive for easier control, and we’ll have ourselves a prize-winning phone. In my eyes – the N95 takes the cake in the Nseries so far. I have yet to see a better phone.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 – 70%